Welcome to premodernity.net — I am Matthew Sergi, an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, in the Department of English, where I specialize in medieval English drama, performance, and play. This site is a hub for the online material I use in my research and teaching.
Any fellow instructor of medieval drama should feel free to borrow, re-use, or re-purpose any part of the materials they find here (except where they substantially incorporate other scholars’ work) without permission from or credit to me.
In the autumn of 2020, the University of Chicago Press published my first research monograph, Practical Cues and Social Spectacle in the Chester Plays; it earned an Honorable Mention for the Medieval and Renaissance Drama Society (MRDS)’s 2021 David Bevington Award for Best New Book in Early Drama Studies and another Honorable Mention for New York University’s 2022 Callaway Prize for Best Book on Drama and Theatre. I’ve also written other publications and talks, receiving the MRDS 2016 Martin Stevens Award for Best New Essay in Early Drama Studies and the MRDS 2012 Barbara Palmer Award for Best New Essay in Early Drama Archival Research. My research has taken form as live plays, too, bringing premodern English dramatic texts into present-day performances, funded in part by a 2015 Connaught New Researcher Award.
From that developing research, I teach periodic graduate courses in the University of Toronto’s Department of English, as well as three core undergraduate courses: Medieval Drama, Drama 1485-1603, and Introduction to British Literature I. I am on the board of directors of PLS, where I periodically direct live performances of medieval plays, and where I am general director for the massive York Plays 2025 invitational performance, as well as hosting the monthly Medieval World Drama Working Group sponsored by the Jackman Humanities Institute; I’m also on the editorial boards of Medieval English Theatre and Research Opportunities in Medieval and Renaissance Drama.
To learn about my credentials, training, and background, you can also navigate from here to my full curriculum vitae (CV), my performing arts experience page, or my Department of English faculty page.